UK: A collaboration agreement for the development of a multiple-unit able to operate on either hydrogen or battery power was announced by Vivarail and fuel cell specialist Arcola Energy on May 8. The companies said they ‘share a determination to help de-carbonise the UK’s transport system’.  A diesel version of Vivarail’s

AUSTRIA: A plan for the electrification of the 91 km Graz-Köflacher Bahn network at 15 kV 16·7 Hz by December 2025 was announced by Director-General Franz Weintögl on May 6. GKB operates routes from Graz to Köflach and Wies-Eibiswald, diverging at Lieboch. It currently carries around 6 million passengers a year, which it

ISRAEL: Czech company AŽD Praha has signed a framework contract covering the supply of turnout monitoring and diagnostic equipment to Israel Railways. The agreement runs for three years with the possibility of a three-year extension, with ISL able to order equipment as required. The diagnostic system is designed to provide an

THE Rail Delivery Group is reported to be divided over what the Williams Review should do to restructure the industry, with one union leader claiming that its members are ‘like rats fighting in a sack’.The RDG published its joint submission to Keith Williams on behalf of train operators who make

AUSTRALIA: John Holland has developed a rail springer excavator attachment which, it says, makes the traditionally labour-intensive and high-risk process of track stripping both safer and up to five times faster. ‘The springer is designed to attach to an excavator via a quick hitch, the road-rail excavator then moves along the

CZECH REPUBLIC: CZ Loko’s Česká Třebová factory has supplied Rail Cargo Carrier with the first of two EffiLiner 1600 Bizon locomotives produced by extensively rebuilding ČKD Class 753 locomotives. RCC-CZ intends to use the first of the  locomotives to haul freight trains on the Polanka nad Odrou – Bohumín-Vrbice – Chałupki/Petrovice

EUROPE: Eurostar is working with Deutsche Bahn to resolve a ticketing system compatibility issue which will prevent the German national operator from selling through tickets between Germany and the UK. Last year Eurostar awarded Dutch software company Sqills a contract to provide its S3 Passenger sales, distribution and reservation suite by

GERMANY: Bayern transport authority BEG has awarded DB Regio a contract to operate the future route S6 of the Nürnberg S-Bahn network. The contract runs from the December 2021 timetable change to December 2030. It covers the operation of around 600 000 train-km/year on the Nürnberg Hbf – Neustadt (Aisch) – Markt Bibart route,

WELDING: Pandrol has released the Pandrol Connect app for Android devices which enables live data capture during the aluminothermic welding of rails, saving time on data entry and improving traceability. This is intended to help infrastructure manager identify defects and assist with cost optimisation by identifying anomalies in weld performance.   The app

USA: Kansas City Southern has revised the definitions of two metrics that it uses to measure operating performance. Operational Cars Online (formerly Cars Online) represents the number of wagons on the KCS network that are not at a customer’s location. Gross Velocity (formerly Train Speed) measures the average velocity of a train between